Aunt Sparks Fiery Debate on Race and Respect After White Woman Tried Touching Her Niece's Hair

If there’s one thing about critical race theory, it's that it really gets the people going.

Social media is the perfect playground for political discourse where debates can swing left or right. Let’s take Kiki (@theangryblacknurse on Instagram), for example.

In early July, she posted a video on Instagram that sparked a fiery debate. The clip saw Kiki shielding her niece from being touched by an older white woman.

Since the video went viral, social media users have chimed in with their thoughts in the comment section. So is this a question of race or respect? TBH, it’s boffum.

The beginning of this now-viral clip shows a young Black woman posing in a red cap and gown with her graduation gifts. Off-camera, an older white woman is heard complimenting the toddler the group had with them.

Soon after, what would have been a friendly conversation went from zero to 100 real quick.

Although I’m sure Betty’s — and we’ll call her Betty because we don’t know her real name — intentions were good, she made her first mistake when she extended her hand to touch the toddler’s hair.

That’s when Kiki intervened and hit the Heisman, telling the woman, “Don’t touch her hair!” Nevertheless, Betty persisted.

When she tried to touch the little girl’s hair again, and again, she had the same results.

During the cringe-worthy interaction, Kiki was laughing hysterically. But those fluent in Black culture know that there was nothing funny about the situation — Kiki’s chuckles were a warning.

Eventually, Betty got the hint and walked away.

“Aht aht! Absolutely not Ms. Mamas! Let’s normalize keeping our hands to ourselves,” Kiki captioned the post. “Auntie don’t play that!”

The post has since garnered a lot of attention online for many reasons. First of all, Solange told y’all to stop touching our hair a long time ago. Secondly, this conversation isn’t just about Betty’s entitlement. It’s about boundaries.

Following the onset of COVID-19, we should know better than to be out here touching people’s kids — or even adults, for that matter — without permission. That said, social media’s reaction to the video was divided.

Many commenters commended her for doing what was necessary; however, others accused her of being racist. “The fact you are a nurse and clearly have [an] issue with [white] people says plenty, this isn’t a race issue ... [white] people aren’t the only ones touching babies. Furthermore, the way you acted was ghetto [and] ignorant," @sewcutetutu1 wrote.

The social media user added: “If this were a [white] lady [and] she had captioned it trying to prevent Black people from touching my niece, you would be outraged.”

To be clear, touching kids you don’t know is mad weird, no matter who you are. Furthermore, I bet Betty won’t do it again. For the people in the back, another social media user, @helevatedcassh, summed things up perfectly.

“Protect black children! Protect Black women! I don’t care who wants to argue about it either. This is not a d--- petting zoo [and] your [white] privilege is invalid here. Don’t touch our children don’t touch our hair don’t disrespect us by treating us like puppies.”

“Thank you this has been a Black TED talk,” she ended her comment.

And I see no lies!